WaPo Fact Checker Glenn Kessler calls out Joe Biden for '[repeating] a false claim' about Republicans (but does it even matter?)

Sarah D | 11:56 AM on May 09, 2022

The Washington Post Fact Checker has been quite content to live comfortably in the Biden administration’s lower digestive tract. But occasionally — very rarely, mind you — the White House does something that even the immensely talented King Fact Checker Glenn Kessler can’t just look the other way on.

It takes a lot to make Glenn Kessler do a double take, but Joe Biden’s definitely up to the challenge this week:

👀👀👀👀when the WH's week-ahead schedule shows the president will repeat a false claim that already earned Three Pinocchios (barely missing Four). https://t.co/UeDQ67XwK6 pic.twitter.com/Jqc7R6ICIL

— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) May 9, 2022

Here’s how Kessler’s April 21, 2022, fact-check concluded:

[GOP Sen. Rick] Scott’s tax plan is certainly ripe for political fodder, but the White House is pushing its luck here. Scott is a Republican, and he is in Congress and part of the GOP leadership. But his snippet of an idea, such as it is, cannot be labeled a “congressional Republican” plan. No legislation has been crafted, and no other Republican lawmakers have announced their support.

One cannot instantly assume every person in a political party supports a proposal by a prominent member. We’re reminded a bit of how hard the Trump presidential campaign tried to falsely tag Biden with ownership of the “radical” Green New Deal, a congressional resolution written in part by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), even though Biden had his own more moderate plan to address climate change.

Scott has already publicly amended the idea in ways that make the instant analysis cited by the White House less relevant. But he has not officially abandoned the original language and the idea still does technically exist on paper — at a time when there are few competing policy platforms issued by congressional Republicans.